Harry Potter : A New Dawn
by sattilallu
Summary: What happens when an abused and repressed child with seemingly dim future prospects is suddenly told he is a wizard and that there is a whole new world of magic at his fingertips.AU,1st to 7th years, slytherin!harry.
1. Chapter 1

**Harry Potter: A New Dawn**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 1. The Formative years**

Privet Drive, Little Whinging is a perfect example of a stereotypical middle class suburb, populated mostly by boring normal families. It is a neighborhood where anything remotely out of the ordinary is frowned upon and talked about in hushed voices.

The residents of house number 4, the Dursleys are no different in this respect from their neighbors. If anything their zeal for being normal has far surpassed that of their neighbors becoming a very unhealthy obsession. The sole exception to this obsession is one little boy named Harry Potter. He was the subject of many hushed whispers and disapproving glares from the denizens of Privet Drive. It was unanimously agreed that tiny, runty Harry Potter was headed for a life of crime and delinquency.

Harry Potter lay down on his cot in the cupboard under the stairs nursing a split lip and a few bruises gained as a result of his extremely unwise attempt at teasing his cousin Dudley Dursley. Harry had been living with the Dursleys as long as he could remember. They had taken him in after his jobless, drunk parents had gotten themselves killed in a car crash leaving him an orphan. The reason for this unexpected generosity was a puzzle to him as the dursleys hated him.

7 years old now, he had been attending the primary school for two years along with Dudley much to his misfortune as Dudley loved to bully him. The only way harry could retaliate was through words as Dudley was much bigger and stronger than him. But today he had been stupid enough to get cornered by Dudley and his friends after mouthing off to them during the class and this had led to a worse than normal beating. But the soiled clothes and a split lip did not go unnoticed by his teacher and this had eventually led to a phone call to his aunt and uncle. Unfortunately for harry, uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia refused to believe that Dudley was anything but an angel and had instead punished harry by locking him in his room which was the cupboard under the stairs.

It would not be an overstatement to say that harry had a very unhappy life at the Dursleys. The tiny and dusty cupboard under the stairs was both a prison and a sanctuary to him since he had come to the Dursley household. His earliest memories were of being pinched, kicked or spat upon by his whale of a cousin Dudley.

The first few years of his life were spent by being locked in the cupboard until he had to be fed or being another play toy for his cousin. As he grew older and hence more physically capable, his aunt slowly began teaching him how to do various chores around the house like cleaning, washing, gardening and eventually cooking as he had become the unpaid and hated servant. He was constantly reminded that he had to earn his meager meals and oversized clothing by working around the house and that working hard from childhood may prevent him from going the way of his parents

The dursley family's favorite recreational activity was making Harry's life as miserable as possible. He was constantly belittled and punished for the slightest of infractions. He was not allowed to participate in any of the activities that other children his age did. The oppressive living environment led to harry developing in a very different way than other children his age.

As a necessity for survival he had become a keen observer and had learnt several lessons in human behavior that event most adults never learn during their lives. His observational skills were a necessity for a peaceful life at the dursleys. He could accurately predict the moods of his relatives and hence was capable of knowing when not to draw any attention towards himself.

Today's episode with Dudley started when they were given their midterm test scores, as always he had a much higher score than Dudley. This had made him a little smug and he had tried to tease his cousin for being stupid and paid for the insult only scant minutes later. His performance in school had been a major point of contention with his aunt and uncle. From the time he and Dudley had started school together, he had consistently performed better than Dudley. At first his uncle had predictably accused him of cheating and punished him. But after a dozen times of doing so, even he had given up claiming that Dudley was not a nancy little book worm.

While Harry could deliberately sabotage his tests to make his life a little easier, he refused to do so. After being told time and again that he would never amount to anything, he had decided that he would work hard to achieve a high station in life. Being normal or mediocre like the Dursleys was very unappealing to Harry. He had recognized quickly that the only way he could achieve his goal was to work as hard as he could at his studies. While he was still nowhere near the top of this class he was slowly getting there. Becoming the top ranking student in class was hard for harry as he was neither encouraged nor even allowed to study properly at home. Every day after returning from school he was swamped with different chores until dinner time after which he was locked in his cupboard. Only then in the cramped confines of his cupboard could he complete his homework and study.

It would be an understatement to say that harry hated his relatives, but he was powerless to do anything. Any attempt at retaliation would only end with a beating from Dudley or an endless list of chores by his aunt and even a perceived slight would result in a reduction of his already meager portion of food. Thinking about his misery only made him angry, sad and helpless at same time. Harry potter drifted off to sleep cursing his situation and resolving to do everything in his power to make it better.

"WAKE UP!, BOY!" a hard rap on the door and the shrill voice of his aunt woke harry up from an uneasy sleep. The sound of a latch sliding was heard before the door to his cupboard opened and he was met with the blurry yet unmistakable face of his aunt.

"Get ready quickly, there are a lot of chores to do today" she said

Harry stifled a groan, ducked a swat from his aunt and hurried toward the bathroom all the while cursing the fact that it was a Saturday and bemoaning his fate.

An hour and a tasteless sandwich later he was asked to clean and arrange his cousin's second bedroom. He lazily opened the bedroom door and entered and suddenly he was lying on his back on the floor. Groaning in pain he sat up and saw that he had slipped on a toy trolley which was lying on the floor. Cursing himself for his carelessness he stood back up again. Suddenly he felt tremors on the wooden floor and deduced that either his uncle or cousin had risen from their sleep.

Quickly closing the door he set about doing his chores and midway through he suddenly realized that he had a way of getting back at his cousin. He picked up the trolley and another similar toy and waited until uncle Vernon went down the stairs. Then he carefully placed both the trolleys under the designer mat at the top of the stairs and went about cleaning the room.

After a few minutes he heard more footsteps and as he expected he saw his cousin waddle past his room at what for him was a furious pace to satisfy his mountainous appetite. A moment later he heard a small shout and a few muted thuds. Immediately he stepped outside and grabbed the toys and threw them back in the room.

His cousin's fall and the accompanying cries immediately brought his uncle and aunt running to stairs at the same time as he came back out of the bedroom. His heart beating rapidly in fear he ran down the stairs two at time to see his aunt and uncle fussing over his cousin.

His uncle took one look at him and bellowed "WHAT DID YOU DO BOY!".

Gulping in fear at his uncle's rapidly purpling face he squeaked "I didn't do anything!".

"DID YOU PUSH HIM DOWN THE STAIRS!" shouted Uncle Vernon.

"No! I did not!" said harry with all the fake indignation he could muster.

"Vernon! We must take him to the hospital" said aunt petunia.

"YES PET" shouted the still angry Vernon and within a minute all the dursleys and a very fearful harry were on the way to the hospital with a moaning and weeping Dudley and a crying aunt petunia in the back seat of the car.

"Did he push you Dudley!" asked a red faced Vernon while furiously navigating the traffic.

And then to Harry's amazement Dudley shook his head in the negative.

A sober Harry lay on his bed that night admiring his luck. The one time he was truly guilty of something he was let off the hook. His relatives usually blamed him even for strange and unexplainable events like when his teacher's hair turned blue after she unfairly picked on him in class. He assumed that his aunt and uncle were too preoccupied with Dudley's injury (three fractures in the right hand) and Dudley himself was too stupid to realize that there was something under the mat when he stepped on it.

As he thought about his day, harry came to a realization that he could get revenge against his relatives as long as he was careful not to get caught.

Over the next few days Harry's euphoria at getting back at Dudley plummeted as his days became even more miserable. Dudley, who could not play outside due to his injury had glued himself to his chair watching television in his bedroom and harry was given the task of waiting on him and bringing any food or drinks he desired from the kitchen to his bedroom. As if catering to Dudley's whims was not enough he had to do Dudley's homework for him as the injury was to his preferred hand.

A week after Dudley's accident, his aunt in a bout of nastiness had sheared all the hair on his head except for a small fringe which she left to hide the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. That night Harry went to sleep worrying about going to school where he was already laughed at for his oversized clothes and broken glasses with his mutilated hair.

The next morning, when he woke up, he found that his had grown back overnight to its previous condition. His delight at his hair growing back quickly turned to anger as his aunt upon seeing his hair called him a freak and given him a week in his cupboard ignoring his pleas that he did not know how his hair grew back. He was allowed out only when Dudley had thrown a tantrum that he wanted Harry around to bring him food.

While being let out of the cupboard was a relief to Harry, being forced supply food to Dudley when he was not allowed to eat since yesterday was a torture, made only worse by Dudley's constant teasing. He watched in impotent rage as Dudley stuffed his mouth while giving mocking smirks. As his anger reached a crescendo he watched Dudley reach for something on the bed with his left hand and a flicker of a thought crossed his mind and then with a resounding crack two of the legs on Dudley's chair snapped sending Dudley crashing down to the floor with a mighty thud.

After an hour and another trip to the hospital, a confused harry sat in his cupboard thinking about the events that transpired. He was sure that the legs of the chair snapped a split second after the exact same thought crossed his mind. It was as if the chair broke because he wished it. He was pretty sure that the chair could not have broken solely because of Dudley's weight because it was regularly used by Uncle Vernon who was much larger and hence heavier than Dudley. To his relief Dudley had only a mild sprain and his left hand was still very much functional and his aunt and uncle concluded that the chair was too old and hence he was not blamed.

But Harry was reasonably sure that he was responsible for the broken chair legs. Now that he thought about it, the other strange events around him happened only when he was angry, desperate or very annoyed. While he did not understand how or why these things happened, he was sure that it was indeed him that made them happen and it was always either the object or person he was annoyed at that was affected.

Over the next few days he tried to replicate this feat by breaking something else. He tried breaking his cupboard door and a few other things and he had also tried to change the colors of various objects. But none of his attempts yielded any results. While he did find a small crack on a very garish vase his aunt was fond of, he could not be sure that it was not an old one. As the days passed he told himself that the chair was an accident just like the other events, but there was a part of him which still held on to the hope that it was him that did those things.

As the days passed and his punishment ended he settled back into his old routine, he started using every bit of his free time to study to achieve his goal of becoming the best in his class and probably even win a scholarship which would help him get into a better high school than the one the Dursleys had graciously informed him that he would be enrolled in.

But his routine had come to a screeching halt only a few months later when another strange event occurred. Dudley's arm was mended and he returned back to school and as if to make up for all the bullying he missed out on, had become twice as nasty.

It was a very stormy day and the sky was pouring down sheets of rain by the time the classes were finished. Uncle Vernon had returned early from work to pick up Dudley in his car. Dudley in lieu with his increasingly bratty behavior had thrown a tantrum saying that he did not want harry in the car and uncle Vernon had easily given in, his own nastiness coming to the fore when he closed the car door in Harry's face and left harry standing in the pouring rain. Already angry with Dudley's bullying, this act made harry even angrier as he saw Dudley gleefully waving through the window of the car. Harry furiously watched his uncle's accelerating car and hoped its tire would burst and a moment after he had that thought there was a loud noise and the car came to a sudden stop.

That night an excited Harry lay in his bed thinking about how he had burst the tire by just wishing it. Now, he knew beyond any doubt that it was him who made all the strange things happen albeit reflexively than with any conscious thought. He knew now that he had to gain control of his ability. Gaining control of this ability would allow him to use it whenever necessary and to prevent himself from involuntarily doing something very obvious like growing back all his hair in one night or changing someone's hair color. He had deduced that there were two different factors at play whenever he had used his power. The first factor is a heightened emotional state (anger, fear, desperation etc) to activate his power and the second factor is giving a direction to his power through his thoughts to do his bidding.

To control his power he should be able to either activate his power independent of his emotional state or be able to artificially induce anger in himself and then be able to direct his power in that state. Since he had no idea of even what he was trying to control, the former approach was all but impossible so he set about making himself angry so as to do something with his power but even that proved to be impossible.

Over the next few months strange things kept happening around him with increasing frequency and each and every one of those times was without any premeditation on his part. Even after several exhaustive hours of trying to make himself angry or just wishing with all his strength for something to happen, he had not been able to control his power.

Almost a year had passed since his discovery of his strange power and yet he had not once been able control it properly. if not for the minor but frequent instances in which he had used his power (mostly to break Dudley's' toys or to trip him and his friends) he would have convinced himself that it was just his imagination. Though in his current situation, even a little bit of control would have been of tremendous help.

'God must have a sick sense of humor.' thought harry running as fast as his scrawny legs could carry him. When Harry wished his classmates would occasionally let him play with them in some game (preferably football) or the other this was not what he was imagining. A few weeks ago Dudley had the unfortunate (for Harry) idea of inventing a game called harry hunting which gained instant popularity with Dudley's gang of ratty assholes. Dudley and his friends would chase him around the school ground and try to catch him. Till now had mostly evaded them without gaining anything more than a few bruises. But today his situation was dire as even some of the older students had joined in the game.

In his hurry to escape, he ran around a corner forgetting that it was a dead end. Coming to a complete stop he looked around him for an escape. But he was surrounded by smooth high walls which were impossible to climb. The only cover he could find was a cluster of dust bins. He hid behind the bins knowing all the while that even Dudley would not be fooled by the cover and listened to the closing footsteps and shouts with rapidly mounting panic wishing to be anywhere but here and suddenly after a brief moment of feeling like he was squeezed through a narrow tube he was somewhere else.

Harry looked around him in confusion for a minute. He saw that he was on the roof of a building and upon further observation he found that he was on the roof of the building beside which he was crouching only a moment ago. He crawled to the edge of the roof and peeked down and found five of his classmates looking around with puzzled faces. He moved back a little and lied down quietly.

"Where is he Malcolm?" Demanded Dudley red faced with exertion.

"I swear I saw him run into this corner Dudley!" Said Malcolm

He lay still on the roof and remained quiet while he waited for Dudley and his gang to leave.

Harry sighed in relief when the voices faded away and then began to wonder how he had gotten on to the roof.

Before his line of thought could proceed any further, Harry heard a loud gong signaling the end of the recess. His still settling heart beat picked up again as he scrambled to his feet to look for a way to climb down. As the minutes passed and he couldn't find a safe way to climb down without being caught, his panic rose to its previous levels. He crouched at the edge of the roof wishing with all his might to be on the ground. And then he felt a peculiar sensation rising up inside in his body and a moment later he once more felt like he was being squeezed through a narrow tube and then he appeared with a resounding crack on the ground next to the building which housed his classroom. He looked around him for a few moments in awe before rushing to his class.

After being chewed out for being late to class a still elated Harry potter sat behind his desk pondering his achievement. He had, after more than a year of trying used his power with full premeditation. Granted he was in panic, but this time his power responded to when he wanted it to and not to momentary thoughts like before. He was pretty sure he felt a strange sensation well up inside him just before he disappeared and reappeared. The strange feeling that welled up inside him was probably his power harry surmised. If he could learn to bring up the feeling on command Harry knew he could replicate all his previous feats. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that he travelled from the roof of the school kitchen to near his classroom which was on the opposite corner of the grounds. This was by far the coolest thing he had ever done and probably the most useful if he could replicate it.

Harry couldn't wait for the school hours to be finished. He wanted to see if he could do it again without the urgency or the panic driving him. As soon as the bell rang signaling the end of the school day, Harry rushed out of the class before he could be intercepted by Dudley's gang all of whom kept shooting nasty looks during the class as if he had done them a grave injustice by not letting them use him as a football.

He quickly exited the school grounds and hurriedly crossed a few streets before he reached a small clump of trees. He had a maximum of sixty minutes before he had to go back to his aunt's house, so he had some time to try and reproduce what he did earlier. If he succeeded it would only take a few seconds to travel. Once again he crouched as he did on the roof, closed his eyes and wished to appear in a narrow alley near number four which is almost always vacant. Nothing happened. There was no strange feeling, no being squeezed through a tube and definitely no loud sound. He reopened his eyes to find himself exactly where he had been before. He closed his eyes and tried again and again with no results. As the minutes passed by, his hopes plummeted and his frustration mounted until suddenly he felt something rising up within him he disappeared from behind the trees and reappeared at his destination with a loud crack, frightening a nearby cat (probably one of Mrs. Figg's). For a moment he stood there in disbelief. Gradually a genuine smile bloomed on his face and he pumped his fist in the air. His self congratulation came to halt as he suddenly remembered that he left his school bag behind the clump of trees. Not letting that minor oversight dampen his spirits he stood up closed his eyes and disappeared with another loud crack and reappeared near his bag. He picked up the bag and with his body still full of adrenaline from the excitement, disappeared again only to reappear in the park closest to privet drive thanking his luck that it was deserted. He wanted to practice a few more times until he was a little confident in its usage before he headed home. He now knew how to bring up his power. After almost giving up on ever learning to use it, he had finally succeeded.

After several more successful attempts, he went home feeling more tired and hungry than he ever felt only to be locked in his cupboard without food for being late. His good mood evaporated as the burning sensation in his stomach grew. He waited for his relatives to go to sleep so that he could steal a little food from the refrigerator. When he was reasonably sure that the dursleys were asleep he tried to open the cupboard door. But as he expected it was still latched. He knew that he couldn't jump (which was what he decided to call his skill until he found a better name) as the loud crack would awaken the Dursleys. So he had to open the latch from the inside. Pushing aside his tiredness he called on his power and wished for the latch to slide open and to his elation he heard the sound he hoped to hear. He slowly pushed open the door and tip toed into the kitchen.

After an hour he tip toed back to his cupboard and closed the door and called upon his power again, this time to close the latch. He lied down on his bed with a large smile on his face. He was happier than he had ever been before, and he had a damn good reason for it too.

All his life he had lived under a cloud of fear, fear of the Dursleys and fear of the dursleys abandoning him. But for the first time in his life, he felt as if he had glimpsed the sky beyond the cloud. Today he had defied all the dursleys without any repercussions. He had escaped Dudley and his friends without a scratch and he had defied the elder dursleys' food ban. He had eaten more than he had ever eaten in his life and now, he knew that his days of being starved according to dursleys' whims were over. All because of the power within him.

Ever since he figured out that it was him that caused all the strange things to happen he wondered if the dursleys had known that he had this power. They had always called him a freak and blamed him for all the strange occurrences after all.

He wondered if there were other people out there who could do things like him. Maybe his parents had the power; the dursleys had called them freaks too. But his parents had died in a car crash and if they had his power they should have been able to escape and if they could jump like him they wouldn't even need a car.

His thoughts drifted back to the dursleys, imagining their reaction if they knew that he could do these things. There was no doubt that they would go ballistic. He remembered his uncle's reaction when Dudley talked about a magic show at one of his friend's birthday party.

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC!" he bellowed and cuffed Dudley on the head while glaring at him as if it was Harry's fault that some kid had a magic show.

That was the first time he had ever seen Dudley get reprimanded. Suddenly Harry sat up, his previous exhaustion forgotten.

'MAGIC!' Thought Harry.

'Was that what his power was?'

He remembered the panic on Vernon's and petunia's faces as Dudley uttered the M word, as if Dudley had leaked a great secret. He was locked in his cupboard immediately and he could still hear Vernon warning Dudley to never utter the M word again. Now that he thought about it, he had never seen the dursleys freak out as much as they did that day. In fact they were more upset because harry heard the word than because Dudley said it. While the dursleys disapproved of a lot of things their reaction to the word 'MAGIC' was extreme by even their standards.

If what he could do was indeed magic, then he was reasonably sure that the dursleys knew about it. He had to admit that calling it magic was more appropriate than simply calling it "the power".

The next two years in Harry's were not anywhere as pleasant as he expected them to be, in spite of his growing powers.

He had learnt to do all of the things that he previously did involuntarily and also learned some new tricks. He could teleport(A term he got from a comic book) over long distances now. He had tried once when he visited London with his aunt and uncle. He could call on his magic instinctively now, instead of having to concentrate for a few seconds.

But, as if to compensate for all the good in his life the durleys had become miserably unbearable. Nowadays it was almost impossible for Dudley's gang to corner him as he would duck behind a corner and teleport somewhere else and on the rare occasions when he couldn't find a secluded space to teleport, he would simply trip his pursuers and escape. So Dudley had given up on harry hunting, but he would blame any and all mischief he committed on Harry. This had the unfortunate consequence of the entire neighborhood considering him a hooligan and treating him like a leper. But things had gone too far when a burglary happened a few houses down the road and the family named him as a possible suspect to the police.

While the police immediately ruled him out as a suspect on seeing that he was not even eleven years old, they still believed that he was a vandal and gone as far as to warm him against any more mischief. Immediately after the police left a red faced Vernon slapped him and proceeded to ream him about causing the police to come their house. Already furious at his undeserved reputation, Harry shouted back at Vernon saying that the neighbors considered him a hooligan because of the rumors spread by the dursleys and that if anyone would become a criminal it would be Dudley.

This pushed Vernon over the edge and he tried to punch, harry but harry instinctively blocked the punch with his hand. As soon as Vernon's fist touched Harry's hand there was a loud crack immediately followed by two smaller cracks. That was the first time in more than a year that harry performed involuntary magic and as a result, Vernon had a badly fractured wrist.

Almost Eleven years old now, Harry had just finished primary school at the top of his class. Ever since that incident none of the dursleys dared to touch him, but they did everything they could to make his life miserable. And so he remained in a very familiar position again, angry and resentful. The feeling of helplessness at his situation had devolved over the years into hatred towards his family and the apathetic people that populated his life. He had long ago vowed to escape from his relatives as soon as he could but he could not come up with a solution to achieve that goal, at least not before his eighteenth birthday. Harry felt that he would go crazy if he had to stay with his relatives for so long.

**AN: **

**Hi,**

**This is my first attempt at fan fiction and English is not my first language. So I apologize in advance for any mistakes I might have made. I hope to improve the quality of my writing as the story proceeds.**

**This story is based on my view of how harry would have shaped up because of his childhood. The story would cover all seven years at Hogwarts.**

**Any advise, criticism and subplot ideas are welcome.**

**Yours Sincerely,**

**Sattilallu.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**AN: Sorry for the delay. I will update the next chapter in a week. Until then Enjoy.**

**Chapter 2: A Perfect Heist and an owl attack. **

Harry Potter hated waking up to his Aunt's shrill voice. But, it had become a daily ritual in Number 4, Privet Drive, one which was about to be repeated again.

"Up! Get up! Now!" yelled Aunt Petunia

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched again.

Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to shake off the last dregs sleep.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Almost," said Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Harry bit back a groan as he slowly got out of the bed. Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten? He picked up a pair of socks from under the bed and after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on and then exited his cupboard.

When he was dressed, he went into the kitchen. As he turned over the bacon in the pan he started planning ahead for his day.

Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day and Harry was usually left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry had always hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she had ever owned. The Dursleys would probably leave him there today too. Harry hoped that he could convince Mrs. Figg to let him walk around the neighborhood on his own for a few hours. He would then teleport back in the empty house and maybe watch the television or have a go at Dudley's video game.

Harry had already fried the bacon and the eggs by the time Dudley and Uncle Vernon had arrived at the dining table. He ate his small breakfast as he watched Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon avert a Dudley sized Dudley tantrum by promising to buy more presents as he wasn't satisfied with the obscene amount he already had.

As he pondered over a plan to get Mrs. Figg to leave him free for the day, the telephone rang. Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap his presents with all the grace of a hippopotamus. He was ripping the paper off a gold wrist watch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon" she said.

"Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." she jerked her head in Harry's direction.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he had planned this (he could if he tried). Harry knew he ought to feel sorry for Mrs. Figg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself that it would be a whole year before he had to look at her cats again.

"We could phone Marge." Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly Vernon, she hates the boy."

The Dursleys often spoke like this, as though he wasn't there or rather as though he was something that did not have the mental capacity to understand their conversation. Harry was used to it by now. While he could use his magic to arrange for the Dursleys to meet with a minor accident, he did not want to cause any more sprains or fractures as even the Dursleys would eventually wise up if they met with an accident whenever they insulted him. Ever since he broke Uncle Vernon's hand, Aunt Petunia had been keeping a close eye on him. He was pretty sure that she suspected that the accidents that seemed to befall Dudley with increasing frequency were probably not truly accidents. Luckily for him Uncle Vernon and Dudley had simply ignored the incident as though it had never happened, though neither of them dared to lay hand on him since then.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca." snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"

"That car's new; he's not sitting in it alone…"

"Or I could spend the day outside, in the park, if you give me some money for Lunch.." suggested Harry, pre-empting a fake tantrum by Dudley.

Uncle Vernon narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"What are you planning boy?" he asked.

"Nothing" Harry assured him.

"I will hang out at the park and take some books with me to prepare for the final exams" he added, in what he hoped was a convincing tone.

But Uncle Vernon didn't look convinced and was about to say something when the door bell rang.

"Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.

Half an hour later, Harry stood on the front porch of Number 4, Privet Drive, clutching a ten pound note, as he watched Uncle Vernon's car disappear around the corner. The Dursleys had to be really desperate to get rid of him for the day, as evidenced by the ten pound note in his hand. They had never given him any money before, not even for grocery shopping. He folded the ten pound note and stuffed it in his pocket. He did not truly need the money for lunch as he could simply teleport into the house and make himself some food or steal money from Dudley's or Uncle Vernon's room, but not asking for money would likely make Uncle Vernon more suspicious.

He walked along the rows of houses for a few minutes until he reached a secluded corner. After checking his surroundings to make sure the area was deserted, he disappeared from the street and reappeared in the Dursleys' living room with a tiny POP.

His skill with all the different magic he could do increased considerably since he had first learned them. His teleportation caused a much softer sound and had also become more comfortable. Other tricks like unlocking and locking doors, changing colors of objects, breaking things and tripping people had become much easier and more instinctive.

Before he left, Uncle Vernon had warned him to be home only by 7 P.M as that would be when the Dursleys returned. This gave Harry about 10 Hours of Dursley free time. He immediately made a beeline to the refrigerator and browsed through it. Choosing a pack of potato chips and a coca cola, he settled on the couch and turned on the television.

He flipped through channels randomly for a while before he came upon a show that interested him. It was an American crime drama, a new one by the look of the picture. He had watched bits and pieces of the previous episodes quite a few times as Aunt Petunia had a disturbing obsession with such shows. He had once caught her taking notes of the different forensic techniques used to solve the crimes and by the looks of the list, she had been doing it for quite a few episodes. He hoped she wasn't planning on murdering someone, especially since he was the one Aunt Petunia hated the most and if she was going to kill someone and make it look like an accident it would probably be him.

He watched the episode with interest as while murders didn't interest him much, the techniques used by the police to catch the culprits did, especially in thefts. As he watched the show progress the gears began to turn in his mind. In an eerie imitation of his Aunt he picked up a notepad and a pen and started jotting down what he knew to be the basic techniques used by the police to identify and convict criminals and the methods to beat them. After a few minutes he jotted down his admittedly limited knowledge on the notepad.

_Finger prints - Use gloves._

_DNA(?) - Don't leave hair, blood or skin at the crime scene._

_Cameras - Do not rob a place with functioning cameras._

_Witnesses - Rob places after they are closed. Can simply teleport into the buildings after closing hours. Do not be too obvious and raise suspicion while casing the joint._

_Other physical evidence - Do not leave anything you carried at the scene of the crime._

Then he wrote down the possible targets and the pros and cons to choosing them.

_High value targets e.g. banks, museums and homes of rich people._

_Pros: err.. large amount of cash and other high value goodies._

_Cons: Tightly guarded by security personnel (high probability of getting shot), unknown hi-tech security measures, ridiculous number of security cameras, large incentive for police to utilize all their resources to catch the thief and selling any unique goods require a network of shady contacts who could snitch._

_Medium value targets e.g. Malls, Supermarkets etc._

_Pros: A lot of useful goods which do not need to be sold, Not likely to raise much interest from the police if only a few products are stolen at a time, and targets are public places where a large amount of finger prints and other extraneous physical evidence is present._

_Cons: Cash registers are likely emptied everyday so only goods can be stolen._

_Low value targets e.g. Corner shops, Suburban homes._

_Pros: No pros worth considering._

_Cons: Serious moral conflict about stealing from middle class and poor people and too insulting for my capabilities. _

Looking over the list it was obvious to him that if he decided to steal from some place, either a mall or a super market were the better options.

'_heh, an idle mind truly is a devil's workshop_' Harry thought grinning at the strange direction his thoughts had taken. He ripped of the paper from the notepad and stuffed it in his pocket. He looked at the clock and was surprised to find that almost three hours had passed since he switched on the television and he was hungry again. He switched off the television and walked to the kitchen and fixed himself a nice beef sandwich. He walked back to the dining table and settled in a chair to have a peaceful lunch when his eye caught the newspaper which Uncle Vernon had left on the table. To be specific his eye caught a large advertisement for a recently opened mall. He pulled the paper closer and read through the ad carefully. The mall appeared to be one of the big ones and it was not too far from Privet Drive.

'_What are the odds that I would make a list and decide that a mall would be the best place to rob and immediately afterwards an ad about a new mall close to where I live would catch my eye'_ Harry thought smiling wryly.

'_It was as if a deity somewhere is giving me a sign… telling me to rob that mall'_ he thought.

He polished of his sandwich and smiling in a way that would probably be very unsettling for a casual observer he carefully cleaned the dining table and the kitchen to eliminate any sign that he was there. After he was satisfied that everything in the kitchen and near the television were placed in the same places they were left, he went upstairs and slipped in to Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's room. He had been in there enough times to clean that he knew where the small safe was. He was about to touch the tiny door of the safe when he suddenly stopped.

'_Well if I am going to become a thief, I better start making the required precautions a habit even if they are not really necessary in this case._' Harry thought.

He took a napkin from Aunt Petunia's cupboard and walked back to the safe. He pressed the napkin against the tiny metal door and put his hand on the napkin so as to not leave any finger prints. After a brief moment of concentration, his magic responded to his will and the sturdy yet simple lock of the safe clicked open. He opened the door while using the napkin to grab the small door handle. He paused for a moment to take in the contents of the safe and then, ignoring the jewelry boxes and some documents, he removed a small stack of 100 pound notes carefully without touching any surface with his hands and examined the notes.

'_The stack was not a full one and was made of old notes so the money was probably withdrawn from an ATM._' He surmised.

He the removed a single note from the stack and replaced the remaining amount in the safe and closed the door. He then called upon his magic and he could feel and hear the door lock itself without a key. He then quickly folded and replaced the napkin from where it was taken and left the room pausing only to wipe his finger prints of the bedroom door handle with his shirt. He spent a little time making himself more presentable. He then went back downstairs and copied the address of the mall on a piece of paper and after concentrating for a moment disappeared from the Dursleys' kitchen and reappeared on the roof top of his school kitchen and immediately crouched down looked around to see if anyone had seen him.. There was no one around. Since it was a Saturday the school would be mostly deserted and there was a bus stop close to the school. He teleported onto the ground and quickly made his way out of the school and to the bus stop.

An hour later he was standing in front of the mall whose picture he had seen on the paper. The mall was huge, and busy. The directions at the entrance showed that it had six floors, four of them full of shops and the last two were movies. The mall was obviously designed to be a place where people of different age groups could hang out. He had already seen all kinds of people, from children younger than him to some really old people. He should be alright as long as he managed to not look lost or confused and thereby attract unnecessary attention. He bought himself a large bucket of popcorn and slowly made his way past a lot of shops, some interesting and some not so much.

In the end it had taken him three hours to see all the shops. After some internal debate he had decided that a large clothing store which had an impressive selection for kids his age and an electronics store which sold basically every electronic product he could think of were the only two stores which had things he truly wanted. But, stealing clothes was pretty useless since he couldn't use them without being caught by the Dursleys so electronics store it is. He spent quite a bit of time browsing the video game section and even bought one with the money he had stolen from Uncle Vernon. He memorized two spots, one in the store and one in the shadow of a set of stairs close to the electronics store for him to teleport to. He then chose a third spot in a dead end alley situated between two buildings on the opposite side of the road from the mall.

Harry ducked behind a large dumpster in the alley which would serve as his launching point later in the night and teleported back to one of his oft used secluded spots in Privet Drive. He then went to a nearby restaurant to buy himself a burger and pass the time until he could return to number 4.

He returned to Number 4 by 7 to find the dursleys already preparing for dinner. Apparently the trip to the zoo had tired darling dudders so much that he was in need of immediate nourishment.

'_Well, good for me_' Harry thought.

If the Dursleys went to bed early, it would give him plenty of time to prepare for his midnight excursion. Leaving the Dursleys to stuff their mouths, Harry crept upstairs again and borrowed a napkin, a woolen balaclava, a small flashlight and a digital watch from Dudley's room.

As was customary, he was locked in his cupboard immediately after dinner. The mall would be closed by 11 PM, so Harry decided to hit the mall at 1 AM as the mall would be populated by nothing more than a few security guards by then. Harry spent his remaining time revising his plan and making some last minute preparations so as to avoid any mistakes. He used magic to change the colors of his clothes and the balaclava to black. This was the first time he found a real use for that particular skill. Until now he had always thought that changing colors of objects, while amusing was an ultimately useless skill.

A few minutes before 1 AM Harry exited his cupboard fully clad in his selected attire. He teleported to the spot behind the dumpster in the alley. He immediately spotted his first mistake. He had assumed that the alley would be unlit since it was a dead end. But one of the buildings adjacent to the alley had an exit which opened into the alley, a well lit exit. Luckily the alley was deserted. He observed the mall on the opposite side of the street for a couple of minutes and after assuring himself that the mall was indeed closed he teleported again to his second spot in the shadow of a set of stairs inside the mall . He immediately crouched next to the stairs and quietly observed his surroundings. The interior of the mall was not as dark as he had hoped. That was a big problem as while black clothing is an excellent camouflage in the dark, it would be easily visible in even a moderate amount of light. He did not spot any movement as far as he could see. So after a taking a deep breath to relax his thumping heart he teleported to the last spot inside the electronic store.

The inside of the store thankfully was very dark. Harry removed the flashlight from his pocket and switched it on. He quickly moved to the portable music player section while carefully shielding the flashlight to prevent any wandering guard from spotting it through the glass front of the store. He picked up the box package of a SONY WALKMAN and a few audio cassettes from a neighboring section before switching off the flashlight.

A moment later he teleported behind a small clump of bushes in the Dursleys' garden and peered through the living room window to make sure that none of the Dursleys were awake. Seeing the room dark and obviously empty, he teleported inside and tip toed to his cupboard. After locking himself in his cupboard he fell back on his bed with a big smile on his face. After he admired his walkman for a few minutes, he suddenly remembered that he forgot to get any batteries. But he was too tired for another trip to the shop, so he stuffed he carefully repackaged the walkman and stuffed all his loot under the bed. He then carefully restored all his clothing to their original colors and carefully hid the stuff he borrowed from Dudley. After a few minutes he slowly drifted off to sleep.

Harry spent the next few days in a euphoric high. He knew that stealing a walkman from a mall was not particularly impressive, especially with his abilities. But, he had still proven to himself that with proper planning and practice he could slowly work up to expensive thefts. Though in order to do that he needed to learn everything about the security measures used in banks and museums. His magical abilities gave him a great edge in this endeavor. Thinking about his magic had inevitably led him to a question that had been plaguing him since he first discovered his abilities, i.e. if there are other people with similar powers. He had a sneaking suspicion that his parents did have some abilities. The Dursleys' rants about him and parents being freaks were much rarer now that he gained control of his abilities, but they were a good indication that both of his parents were probably as strange as him.

Harry knew that stealing was wrong. But he could not bring himself to care about the moral implications of his new hobby. He already had a nasty reputation in the neighborhood, most of it undeserved. So he decided that stealing would be his alternate secret profession, though he promised to himself that he would never steal from normal people. Large greedy corporations and obscenely rich people are of course fair game.

'_Maybe I could even help with a little redistribution of wealth like Robin Hood'_ he thought, just to sooth any lingering guilt he might have.

The start of the summer holidays meant that Harry had a lot of free time on his hands (even with all the chores he was assigned). He spent his Dursley free time by either practicing his magic or reading comic books purchased by nicking Dudley's pocket money or hiding away somewhere while listening to some cool songs on his walkman. It was his luck that Dudley got more pocket money than he could count and he spent very little of it as Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon got him everything he wanted anyway. Harry was really looking forward to September when his secondary school would begin.

Harry was very relieved that he would not be going to secondary school with his cousin as Dudley was accepted into Uncle Vernon's old school Smeltings. Any lingering resentment he had at having to go to a local public school evaporated as soon as he saw Dudley in his ridiculous school uniform (Maroon tailcoat, orange knicker bocker, and flat straw hats called boaters). Harry made sure to stay around the house more for a few days as Dudley parading around neighborhood in his new uniform and Aunt Petunia gushing to anyone who would listen about how handsome he looked provided some much needed comic relief.

He was not so amused though, when he found out that his aunt was dyeing some of Dudley's old clothes gray in order to make him a school uniform. Harry was pretty sure that it would take a much lesser amount of effort and be only a little more expensive to buy him a pair of new uniforms. But Aunt Petunia never missed a chance to make Harry more miserable.

He made himself a pair of toasts and headed outside immediately as he did not want to be in the house when Dudley came down for his breakfast. Harry had no doubt that Dudley would try to tease him about the uniform and already being in a foul mood Harry was not sure he could stop himself from either setting Dudley on fire or doing something else to that order.

Harry leisurely strolled past the identical rows of houses while munching on the buttered toast. It was when he was passing by Mrs. Figg's house that he briefly felt a shadow cross his face. He looked up and was startled to find a large bird gliding directly toward him and closing in at an alarming rate. He instinctively raised his left hand to cover his face and braced himself. But a moment later instead of the bites or scratches he was expecting he felt a heavy weight settle on his arm. He slowly opened his eyes to see the bird which he now recognized as an owl perched on his hand. Before he could think of a course of action the owl stuck out its right leg on which something was tied and then he heard soft foot falls to his left. He saw Mrs. Figg scampering down her driveway.

"Untie the letter boy" She said.

"What….?"

"Hurry! Before anyone sees you" She urged him.

He carefully removed what he now observed was an envelope from the owl's leg by the time Mrs. Figg reached him. Before he could voice the myriad of questions running through his head, Mrs. Figg shooed the owl away and dragged him into her house and locked the door.


End file.
